Current Affairs - August 20, 2020 Current Affairs

The government has extended the partial credit guarantee scheme (PCGS) 2.0 for three months, giving public sector banks (PSBs) till November 19 to build their portfolios of bonds and commercial papers (CP) from non-banking financial institutions.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the digital payment services through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in 15, 004 village and ward secretariats through video conference.

In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution, President Ram Nath Kovind amended the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 by Government of India (Allocation of Business) Three Hundred and Fifty Sixth Amendment Rules, 2020, thereby, changing the name of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as Ministry of Education.

DBS Bank India Ltd has appointed Prashant Joshi as Managing Director(MD) and Head of National Distribution. He will report to Surojit Shome, Managing Director and CEO of DBS Bank India Limited.

In accordance with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW), India ranked first in number of organic farmers and 9th in terms of area under organic farming. Notably, Sikkim was the first state in the world to become completely organic and other states including Tripura and Uttarakhand have set targets to be on the same line.

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare; Science & Technology and Earth Sciences virtually addressed the inaugural session of the two-day long CII Public Health Conference, where he inaugurated "India Healthcare Week" with the theme "Redefining Healthcare Ecosystem" from 17th - 21st August 2020. The week has been initiated by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Ministry of Ayush (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy).

On 17th August, 2020 13th Session of the India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation was held virtually. Expanding economic partnership was the key agenda of the meeting. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India and Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates

On 14th August 2020, Draupadi Murmu, governor of Jharkhand and Hemant Soren Chief Minister of Jharkhand introduced the New State emblem at the Aryabhatta Auditorium, Ranchi. The Logo came into effect from 15th August 2020.

As per the Forbes' list of highest paid actors for the year 2020, Bollywood Actor Akshay Kumar ranked 6th with his estimated earnings of USD 48.5 million and is the only Indian features on the list comprising top 10 actors. The list is topped by Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson for the consecutive second time, with an estimated net worth of USD 87.5 million followed by Ryan Reynolds(USD 71.5 million) and Mark Wahlberg(USD 58 million).

On August 17, 2020 Angela Buxton, the former British tennis player and two-time Grand Slam Doubles champion and Equal Rights Pioneer, died at the age of 85. Angela Buxton was the doubles partner of Althea Gibson, who was the first Black person to win a major title in 1956. Angela Buxton & Althea Gibson together won the doubles titles at French Open and Wimbledon in 1956. Buxton also reached the singles final at Wimbledon that year but lost in the finals to American Shirley Fry.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has awarded the title sponsorship rights of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 to fantasy cricket league platform Dream11 with an average bid of Rs 234 crore per year(222 crore for the first year, Rs 240 crore & 240 crore for 2nd & 3rd year respectively) after Chinese mobile manufacturer Vivo exit from Sponsorship.IPL 2020 is to be held in UAE(United Arab Emirates) from September 19 to November 10, 2020.

Indian Limited-overs Team Vice-Captain Rohit Sharma has been appointed as Brand Ambassador of Sports eyewear brand, Oakley for a period of two years in India

.On August 17, 2020, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) approved the renaming of Manduadih Railway Station in Uttar Pradesh (UP) as 'Banaras'. In 2019, Former Union Minister Manoj Sinha had written to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath requesting the change in name of the Manduadih Railway Station. Manduadih is a place in Varanasi situated about four kilometres from Varanasi Cantonment Station.

Chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) Standing Committee, Amul Bhatt announced that in Gujarat two flyover bridges of Ahmedabad city will be named after late Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. The flyover bridge at Income Tax circle, Ahmedabad will be named as Arun Jaitley Flyover. The flyover at the Anjali cross road will be named Sushma Swaraj Bridge.

Pandit Jasraj, an Indian classical vocalist, belonging to the Mewati gharana ( a musical apprenticeship tribe of Hindustani classical music) passed away at 90 in his home in New Jersey, New York, United States(U.S.) due to cardiac arrest. He was born on January 28, 1930 in Pili Mandori, a village in the Hisar district of Haryana. He is a recipient of the Padma Shri (1975), Padma Bhushan (1990) and Padma Vibhushan (2000).

On 17th August 2020, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) launched VedKrishi.com, an Online Farm to Fork Service, over a virtual platform. The portal is promoted by the farmers for selling toxic free farm produce. The platform was set up by the VedKrishi Farmer Producer Company, Nagpur based farmer producer Company.

On 18th August 2020, Flipkart signed a memorandum of understanding(MoU) with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna to support the industry focused applied research in the fields like Artificial Intelligence(AI), Natural Language Processing(NLP) and Machine Learning(ML).

On August 17, 2020, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates have agreed for the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace agreement, or the Abraham Accord to establish full diplomatic ties. In this regard, Israeli will halt further annexation of Palestinian lands.

On 17th August 2020, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the appointment of Rakesh Asthana, Gujarat cadre IPS officer of 1984 batch as the Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF), along with the Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) till 31st July 2021- the date of his superannuation.

On August 13, 2020 England Spinner Laura Alexandra Marsh announced her retirement from all forms of Cricket. In December 2019, she announced retirement from International Cricket, and now has retired from Domestic Career as well.